It’s Monday again – which means another episode of Chasing Tone! Here are the short notes:

First up: Should you put your money on amps or pedals? So the big question is – do you 1.) buy nice pedals – but use a solid state digital amp? Or 2.) buy a nice tube amp and then get some pedals to compliment it? Travis hits the nail on the head with this one.

“It’s two different schools of thought – and you get what you pay for.”

Some of the solid-state amps that are coming out recently are just awesome! Quilter, Fractal, Axe effects, and Kemper (just to name a few) are producing some seriously awesome stuff! Looking at it from the other end, not all tube amps sound terrific. I won’t mention any here by name specifically – but there are some tube amps out there that sound pretty terrible as well. So it really depends on the quality of your amp and your pedals and what sounds the best to you. Use your ears. If you like it, who cares what anybody else thinks!

Putting an EQ pedal in the effects loop of an amp. So here is quick tip from Brian that I thought was pretty cool. If you have an amp with an effects loop – try putting an EQ pedal through the effects loop to help shape your dirt channel. I tried this with my Fender Hot Rod Deville (2×12”) and had some pretty cool results. Totally changed the channel 2 (dirt channel) voicing of that amp!

Should Brian get a PRS (Paul Read Smith)? YES! Or at least something that is high quality with humbuckers. My vote is for a PRS Custom 22. That was THE locker guitar for me since high school. By locker guitar, I mean – in high school, some people had pictures of their high school sweethearts, or pictures of fancy cars, etc – I had a cut out a picture of a PRS custom 22. I even cut out a second picture, made it in to a magnet, and stuck it on my parent’s fridge as a long shot Christmas wish/ miracle… it is still on their fridge 10 years later and I still don’t have my PRS. If any is best friends with Paul and wants to make a dream come true… Lol. One day Max, one day….

– Max